MUN’s Division of Community Health in the Faculty of
Medicine and the Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency
have entered into a partnership to manage and supply access
and dissemination services for certain protected health information.
Information in the databases come from the 2001 Newfoundland
Adult Health Survey of over 8,500 Newfoundlanders. Also included
in this partnership are archived data from earlier health
surveys over the 1985-90 period conducted by the late Dr.
Jorge Segovia and medical researcher Alison Edwards of Community
Health. Ms. Edwards will be steward of the databases.

Alton Hollett, director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics
Agency, said this partnership is a unique opportunity for
the provincial government to make a connection with the university
and allow access for approved researchers to information not
formerly available to them. “In this way the public
interest is better served and we get the satisfaction of knowing
the put to good use. There is a potentially huge value-added
component.”

Information in the databases contain numerous variables from
self-assessed health status demographic and lifestyle information
of those surveyed, to hospital admissions and discharges and
MCP linkages showing the number of visits in each calendar
year. Ms. Edwards said she has always been concerned about
long-term archiving of data from the 1994-95 Newfoundland
Adult Health Survey and the 1992-99 St. John’s Medical
Utilization Survey. “Unless data is well-organized,
well-documented and accessible it’s of no use for future
research.”

Dr. Roy West, acting associate dean of Community Health, said
the agreement to share information sets up one point of access
to the data for researchers, through Ms. Edwards in her role
as steward. Her job includes ensuring that respondent confidentiality
is protected and screening research projects that want access
to the database. Ms. Edwards explained that “researchers
who want to use the data for analysis must have approval from
the Human Investigation Committee.”

The health information databases will be housed in two locations
– the Division of Community Health and the Newfoundland
and Labrador Statistics Agency.